“i ask you why is it so important that it be assur? you had some very good points. smoking should be stopped regardless of its halachaic status “
Why? Because there are many things that are taivos to us, and we WILL do them – unless we know that these things are assur. I don’t go through red lights or stop signs.
It is against the law. If it were not against the law, I might be tempted to do so. Many people will do the right thing ONLY when it is a law and they HAVE to. The reason we have a Torah and cannot rely on our own objective morality of what is right and wrong, is that objective morality changes with time and circumstance. Only the Torah is L’netzach, and only the Torah gives us the blueprint for living a true moral life in an unchanging, always relevant state.
The Ten Commandments were not the Ten Suggestions. Were they the latter, I guarantee you that many Jews would break most of them. When it comes to Kashrus, we don’t say that we can’t eat chazir because it tastes bad. We say efshar aval lo muttar. It may taste AWESOMELY good, but is not permitted to us, and I will not eat it, for that single reason. Smoking needs to be stated as assur, so that there will be a similar wall in front of it, to prevent people from lighting that very first cancer stick. And even more, if every dollar spent on cigarettes were instead to be given to tzedaka, we could help a whole lot of people. If one has that much money to set fire to, at least put it to good use for more people than just oneself. JMO.